Acute vertebral collapse and cauda equina compression in tertiary syphilis.

A patient with observed acute collapse of a lumbar vertebral body developed cauda equina compression. He was known to have contracted syphilis some 20 years before and, while he may well have suffered from tabetic spinal neuroarthropathy, histology of the collapsed vertebra showed features which indicate that an intra-osseous gumma could also have been responsible for his vertebral collapse and subsequent neurological deficit.